‘It’s going to take time’ for GB Energy to start making money, says Ed Miliband
Energy secretary Ed Miliband has said “it’s going to take time” for GB Energy to start making money.
Legislation to establish the state-owned energy company needs to go through the House of Commons, and the government has set aside £8.3bn to invest in new windfarms and solar projects, which must get built before GB Energy can start generating a return, he told BBC Breakfast.
“Within the lifetime of this parliament it will start generating returns,” he said.
Miliband said:
Within a couple of years, as we build new onshore wind, new solar, we’ll start to see the effect on bills, but there are lots of things going on here. So our exposure to gas prices, which are set internationally, is something I don’t control.
In a sense, the whole point of what I’m saying is we’ve got to get off that lack of control where dictators like [Vladimir] Putin control the fossil fuel market, because I can’t promise you what’s going to happen to gas prices.
But I can say that, if we drive to clean, homegrown British energy, we will have much more control over what happens to bills.”
Key events
Commons leader Lucy Powell said she “won’t be taking” advice from shadow leader Chris Philp, as the Tories had “left the country in a worse state than even our worst fears”.
She told the Commons:
As we end our third week in government though, it is clearer than ever before that the Conservatives failed in their responsibility and left the country in a worse state than even our worst fears.
They don’t like to hear it. They failed to take the tough and right choices. It’s as if they knew they were going to lose the election and left the really difficult decisions for us. They don’t like it, but history will show it.”
She added:
So I’m afraid I won’t be taking [Philp’s] advice on the issues that he raises. He talks about redefining issues of illegal migration. I do remember the former home secretary redefining the backlog as a ‘cue’, I think, under the last government, but far from stopping the boats we saw the boats over the last year reached record highs coming over so their plan just wasn’t working.
And that’s why we’ve already reallocated those resources and we started returning illegal migrants already, something that his government failed to do.”
Earlier on Thursday in the House of Commons, Philp said the government suffered a “significant backbench rebellion” on the two-child benefit cap and their majority would be “gone by Easter”.
He told MPs:
The government has sent mixed messages about plans to scrap or not the very reasonable two child cap on welfare payments, but then on Tuesday the government whipped their MPs to vote against that.
There was a significant backbench rebellion less than three weeks after the election, not even Theresa May managed a rebellion within three weeks of an election. So it’s a bit of a first and at this rate, the government’s majority will be gone by about Easter of next year.”
Philp also said the government had “rebranded” their terminology in relation to migration. He said:
I also noticed the government has rebranded ‘illegal’ immigration as ‘irregular’ and that they merely want to ‘control’ it.
Can I say to the government that entering this country by small boat is illegal? It may help them to refer to section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971 as amended, if they’re in any doubt. The government’s objective should be to completely stop illegal immigration not merely to control it.”
Labour will be pushed to axe two-child benefit cap, says John McDonnell
Jessica Elgot
Labour will be pushed to act on abolishing the “indefensible” two-child benefit limit, the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has claimed, after Keir Starmer suspended him and six others for the first rebellion of the new government.
It came as multiple MPs expressed shock and dismay at the suspensions, including one suspended MP who claimed she felt her experiences of domestic abuse had been “weaponised” in conversations with the whips. Labour said it did not recognise those allegations.
Writing in the Guardian, McDonnell said the rebellion was not a coordinated attempt to undermine the government by voting on the SNP amendment, but said it was a genuine point of conscience for those with high levels of child poverty in their constituencies.
“The seriousness of the risk demonstrates the seriousness of the issue at stake,” he said. McDonnell and others, who have had the whip suspended for six months for their vote on the king’s speech amendment, said they also had grave doubts about the effectiveness of the child poverty taskforce announced by the government before the vote.
McDonnell believes the rebellion and the attention it has focused on child poverty means that the government will eventually have to address the cap, and made it significantly more likely that it will be abolished.
Starmer’s political spokesperson confirmed the prime minister had been consulted on the move. “We’ve been very clear on our position on the two-child limit, and why we did not commit to removing it both during the campaign and since,” she said.
You can read the full story here:
A Labour MP who worked as an NHS physiotherapist during the pandemic has claimed that “crony contracts” resulted in wasted resources, reports the PA news agency.
Sonia Kumar, MP for Dudley, told the Commons:
As an NHS physiotherapist who worked during the Covid-19 pandemic I had the misfortune of witnessing first-hand how crony contracts resulted in wasted resources.”
Kumar added that the contracts did a “disservice to professionals and patients”.
Cabinet Office minister Georgia Gould said:
Billions were spent on PPE (personal protective equipment) that was either unusable, overpriced or under delivered, and this government is absolutely determined to learn those lessons and safeguard every pound of taxpayers money.”
Government legislation designed to help nationalise the UK’s railways will be fast-tracked through the House of Commons, reports the PA news agency.
Commons leader Lucy Powell said the passenger railway services public ownership bill will undergo its committee stage and remaining stages on 3 September.
The bill, which was included in the king’s speech, is due to be debated for the first time at second reading on 29 July.
Powell added the budget responsibility bill, due to be debated at second reading on 30 July, will also complete its remaining stages in the Commons on 4 September.
The Great British Energy bill will receive its second reading on 5 September, Ms Powell said in the weekly business statement.
£5bn debt crisis of special educational needs ‘could bankrupt’ English councils
Patrick Butler
A £5bn debt crisis caused by out-of-control overspending on special educational needs could explode in less than two years, bankrupting scores of England’s local authorities, the UK government has been warned.
The crisis stems from the failure to properly fund a huge increase in demand for Special Education Needs and Disability (Send) services over the past decade, triggering an “existential” crisis for councils which have “no obvious means of paying off the debt”.
Council leaders have told ministers the Send system, which was introduced by the Con-Lib government 10 years ago, is in meltdown, and have described it as broken, unaffordable and failing hundreds of thousands of children and their parents.
The overspend is the legacy of the last Tory government’s decision to allow Send overspending to continue for years under a special “override” arrangement that allowed councils to keep these rapidly mounting debts off municipal balance sheets.
The huge off-balance sheet debts are due to be settled in April 2026, making it the latest financial headache to hit the Labour government as it takes stock of the costs of repairing a public sector depleted by years of austerity.
A highly critical report published by the Local Government Association (LGA) and the County Councils Network (CCN) on Thursday said Send services in England were overwhelmed and dysfunctional. Fundamental reform to the system was not only inevitable but unavoidable, it said.
It called for fundamental reform – likely to take two parliaments to implement – to ensure more Send provision is delivered in mainstream schools rather than expensive private special schools, as well a short-term injection of £2.2bn to ensure mainstream schools have suitable Send staffing levels and infrastructure.
You can read the full piece here:
Also, the Guardian’s Politics Weekly UK podcast, presented by John Harris, focuses on Labour suspensions and the Tory leadership race in its latest episode.
You can listen to the 33-minute podcast, where Harris is joined by columnist Gaby Hinsliff and former Downing Street chief of staff and Conservative peer Gavin Barwell, here:
The former Lib Dem leader Vince Cable is testifying at the inquiry into the Post Office Horizon scandal today. My colleague Mark Sweney will be sharing updates on that in the live blog here:
“The days of government ministers waging culture wars against civil servants are over,” chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, has said.
Responding to a question on civil service pay awards, he said:
Yesterday I met the civil service unions together with my colleague, the new minister [Georgia Gould]. We had a very positive discussion covering a whole range of issues.
I made it clear that the days of government ministers waging culture wars against civil servants are over. Instead, we want a civil service that’s motivated, valued and helps the government deliver its priorities. And on this specific issue of pay, the government will have more to say on civil service pay before the summer recess.”
Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, Mary Glindon, said the number of pay bargaining units is generating “unfair pay disparities between people doing near-identical jobs in different government offices” and asked whether pay bargaining could be consolidated across the civil service.
McFadden replied:
We do value civil servants, and of course we want all public servants to be properly and fairly rewarded, and, like any public expenditure, what’s spent on pay has to be balanced against other priorities and fair to taxpayers as a whole.”
He added:
Departments do have flexibility on pay, they can direct pay towards the needs of their own workforces.”
Robert Jenrick’s campaign manager, Danny Kruger, will this morning submit his Conservative party leadership nomination to Bob Blackman.
The form includes Jenrick’s proposer, seconder, and eight supporting MPs, Jenrick’s campaign team said.
Kruger said:
To have any path back to government we must win back those voters we have lost, across the board but particularly to Reform. At the same time we have to bring our party together, united behind one set of coherent Conservative principles.
The British people need to be convinced that we are the most responsible and competent party of government for us to have any chance of winning in 2029, especially when we know Labour are set to fail on so many important issues for our country.
Rob Jenrick will do that. He has the energy, temperament and policy agenda to take on our rivals and lead us back to power in five years.”
Libby Brooks
With the timetable for the Scottish Conservative leadership contest yet to be set, and only one candidate – current justice spokesperson Russell Findlay – declared, the debate around the nature of the party itself continues.
Murdo Fraser – a veteran Tory MSP who stood for leadership against Ruth Davidson in 2013 on a platform of splitting off from the UK Conservatives – has revisited this idea, after a number of colleagues called for further discussion of it during the leadership contest, in particular if the UK party indicated a move to the right following its general election defeat.
Fraser told the Holyrood Sources podcast that he was interested in the Canadian model, whereby the UK Tory party would still fight elections in Scotland but not at Holyrood, where a centre-right grouping much more focused on devolved matters would take its place.
Fraser noted that the Scottish Conservative brand was already considered “distinct” from the UK party by many voters, which was “a positive for us”.
But supporters of Findlay have suggested that such a move would be “catastrophic” for the party’s chances at the 2026 Holyrood elections, while Davidson herself was blunter still, telling the Mail yesterday that “a divided party is a short route to electoral suicide”.
Robert Jenrick enters race for Conservative party leadership
Robert Jenrick will run for the Conservative party leadership.
Jenrick’s campaign team announced that the former immigration minister had the support of the 10 Conservative MPs needed to make it on to the ballot paper.
Jenrick will become the third Tory MP to formally declare their candidacy, after James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat previously announced their bids.
Conservative leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat has denied that his suggestion that he would be prepared to leave the European convention on human rights (ECHR) is political opportunism.
“No, I’ve been very, very clear I am prepared to make any decision that will keep the British people safe,” he told GB News when questioned about his change of tone on the issue. He added:
I am prepared to leave the ECHR, or indeed any other institution that doesn’t serve the interests of the British people.”
Tugendhat talked up his experience as former security minister and in the armed forces, saying he has a “track record of delivery” for the British people.
He also said he believes he could turn around the Tories’ disastrous election result as party leader and pointed to Labour’s landslide win after a poor result in 2019.
The Tory leadership contender was asked on BBC Breakfast if he believed he could win an election as leader of the Conservative party in five years’ time:
Yes, it is possible to do that. You’ve got to restore trust. You’ve got to demonstrate delivery and you’ve got to be able to listen to the British people to make sure you understand where the challenges are.
But you can look at what Keir Starmer achieved, frankly, he went from his worst electoral result to his best in five years. We can do the same but we need to be united. We need to regain the trust of the British people and we need to be ready to deliver.”
Tugendhat said he had been surprised by Liz Truss’s recklessness as he was quizzed about previously backing her.
“I stood against every other leadership contender at the last time and then I was left with the choice of two,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
He added: “Liz demonstrated a recklessness that surprised all of us.”
Tugendhat dodged questions of whether backing Truss and her economic plan showed a lack of judgment on his part.
He said:
What we need to be doing is focusing on the challenges that are facing us in the future. Over the last three, four years – you’re absolutely right. We have failed to deliver. That’s exactly why I’m standing because I think we need to unite this country. We need to rebuild that trust, and we need to deliver.”
Offshore wind to power 20m homes within five years, Starmer to pledge
Kiran Stacey
Keir Starmer will promise to build enough offshore wind over the next five years to power 20m homes, by using taxpayer money to develop parts of the seabed owned by the royal family.
The prime minister will announce details of the government’s energy generation company, known as Great British Energy, during a visit to the north-west designed to highlight the government’s promises on green energy.
The energy company will be given £8.3bn of public money over the course of the parliament to invest in green technologies, with a target to develop an extra 20-30GW of offshore wind power through a tie-up with the crown estate.
Ministers are hoping that investment will help persuade companies to spend another £60bn in an attempt to hit the government’s target of decarbonising Britain’s power sector by 2030.
Starmer said:
This innovative partnership between Great British Energy and the crown estate is an important step toward our mission for clean energy by 2030, and bringing down energy bills for good.
This agreement will drive up to £60bn in investment into the sector, turbocharging our country toward energy security, the next generation of skilled jobs, and lowering bills for families and business.
This new partnership will help accelerate the deployment of clean energy we need, help generate good jobs in our country and generate wealth for the taxpayer.”
Great British Energy forms the centrepiece of the government’s green agenda, under which ministers are promising to deliver clean power by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
You can read the full piece by Kiran Stacey and Fiona Harveyhere:
‘It’s going to take time’ for GB Energy to start making money, says Ed Miliband
Energy secretary Ed Miliband has said “it’s going to take time” for GB Energy to start making money.
Legislation to establish the state-owned energy company needs to go through the House of Commons, and the government has set aside £8.3bn to invest in new windfarms and solar projects, which must get built before GB Energy can start generating a return, he told BBC Breakfast.
“Within the lifetime of this parliament it will start generating returns,” he said.
Miliband said:
Within a couple of years, as we build new onshore wind, new solar, we’ll start to see the effect on bills, but there are lots of things going on here. So our exposure to gas prices, which are set internationally, is something I don’t control.
In a sense, the whole point of what I’m saying is we’ve got to get off that lack of control where dictators like [Vladimir] Putin control the fossil fuel market, because I can’t promise you what’s going to happen to gas prices.
But I can say that, if we drive to clean, homegrown British energy, we will have much more control over what happens to bills.”
Ed Miliband pledges that Britain will ‘never again’ face an energy bills crisis
Emily Dugan
Ed Miliband has pledged that Britain will “never again” face an energy bills crisis as he tries to wean the country off fossil fuels.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, the energy security and net zero secretary said:
Millions of people around our country have suffered from the worst energy bills crisis in decades in our country and this government says: Never again … And the only answer to never again, is to get off fossil fuels.”
Introducing the government’s legislation to create the public owned company Great British Energy, Miliband said that a reliance on fossil fuels left the country dependent on global markets.
“I can’t control what Putin is doing and geopolitics drives energy insecurity. We’ve got to get off that and look, we’re willing to have this argument,” he said
Miliband also pledged that the move was “going to lead to lower bills over the parliament because every solar panel we put up every onshore wind turbine we build gives us greater energy security and lowers our exposure to these gyrations of the fossil fuel market.”
Labour defends GB energy plan amid concern over funding
Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s latest UK politics live blog. I’m Amy and I’ll be bringing you updates today.
The legislation to create Great British Energy (GB Energy) will be introduced at Westminster today.
Labour has vowed to create a publicly owned energy generation company headquartered in Scotland to drive the government’s goal of making the UK a “clean energy superpower”. The exact location of the HQ will be revealed “soon”, the government said.
The secretary of state for energy security and net zero, Ed Miliband, has been on the media rounds this morning and he told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today Programme that GB Energy is a “crucial tool” to tackle the country’s energy insecurity and the climate crisis. He said it would “give us that energy security we’ve so sorely lacked for many decades in this country”.
Miliband said:
The central mandate on which this government was elected was that our exposure to fossil fuels lead to the cost of living crisis and our mission is to become a clean energy superpower.”
Asked about Labour’s plan to not issue any new gas and oil licences in the North Sea and how critics have said it could increase the UK’s dependence on foreign energy, Miliband replied:
If fossil fuels had given us energy security we wouldn’t have seen the terrible cost of living crisis that we’ve seen over the past two years.
The energy company will be given £8.3bn of public money over the course of the parliament to invest in green technologies, with a target to develop an extra 20-30GW of offshore wind power through a tie-up with the crown estate.
Critics have argued that a substantially larger sum of money is needed for changes to be implemented. Defending the plan, Miliband said:
This is about private and public investment together. This is a government in a hurry on behalf of the British people.”
